Hills Greening

In the afternoon of Jun. 13, reporter overlooked Daqing Hill located in Yuejin Village, Xihu Town, Shizishan District, finding the bare rocks are covered with green. After walking closer, it is found seedlings are breaking through ground and swinging along the wind.

In the past, there were two stone pits in the Daqing Hill and it lost its original green after excessive exploitation. Last year, Daqing Hill was listed in Projects of Mine Rehabilitation and Vegetation Restoration and the stone pits were shut down and the vegetation restoration project was started on Nov. 19 with total area of up to 354 mou.

At the 13th day, 3:00 PM, it is very hot but the construction personnel are still working according to their own role in the restoration site. At the mountainside, there are about 10 workers working to maintain the vegetations and at the foot of mountain, 10 plus workers are working to build water drainage system. The project manager Jiao Guofeng said that the project is now entering latter management stage and this stage is a key period for vegetation restoration and therefore we have arranged routine maintenance personnel to conduct mowing, irrigation and chemical management and also started this month to build a water drainage system of 800 meters to prevent too much rainwater damaging roadside greening at the foot. Till now, we have completed about 200 meter long and may complete all before Jun. 25.

As introduced by Jiao Guofeng, this vegetation restoration project uses aggregate seeding technology to firstly cut the hill into a 60 degree slope by use of explosion to prevent vegetation sliding and then mix grass seeds, tree seeds, soil and water etc. together and use equipment to spray them onto slope. This project may be invested with a total fund of 20 plus million Yuan. The seeding will start from Apr. 20 and end at Jun. 3. The trees planted in the slope include torch tree, silver chain, Cassia corymbosa etc. totaling 7, which are all easy to survive and grow faster and could be able to prevent soil erosion and could sprout in 7 days and grow up to 50cm in four months. With their growth, 500 plus thousand trees will "brush” the mountain into green again.

Zha Jinsong, vice mayor of Xihu Town, Shizishan District told reporter that this mine rehabilitation and vegetation restoration is mainly carried out by Agricultural Commission with necessary assistance provided by the district where mine is located. This vegetation project involves five villager teams and Xihu Town has sent relevant personnel to visit and require such villagers to relocate their houses and remove remaining equipment in stone pit prior to start of this project. This work lasted for close to 2 months. After start, this town continues to help solve any problems that may affect works, which ensures smooth start and smooth progress of the works.

Rocky mountain afforestation and mine vegetation restoration project is one of projects for Shizishan District to improve forest coverage and mountain greening. This year, this district printed and handed out circular to state that Xihu Town is based to carry out treatment and vegetation restoration on such areas as urban area, traffic entrances and abandoned mines etc. so as to build an environment-friendly district. Meanwhile, such departments as safety supervision, public security and state land etc. should be organized to jointly carry out special inspection on mines that have been shut down before and punish those that continue doing businesses privately after shutdown. As statistics is shown, this district planned to complete rocky mountain afforetation and mine vegetation restoration up to 738 mou this year.